Senior Manager, Data Science - Institutional Analytics & Research

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Grade:  611 Pay Range: $ - $

The Senior Manager, Data Science leads a team of Data Scientists and Analysts to develop AI/ML-powered models that drive real-time decision-making in faculty workflows. This role focuses on reducing manual effort and “administrivia” in academic processes by supporting building and implementing predictive and prescriptive systems to provide personalized interventions, enabling faculty to act with precision and efficiency, while reducing “decision fatigue”.

This position plays a critical role in building WGU’s Decision Intelligence capability and will serve as a thought partner and subject matter expert in the integration of machine learning models into university operations. With WGU’s recent adoption of the Decision Intelligence platform, this leader will work to unlock its potential and drive automation and simulation-based decision-making across the academic experience.

The Senior Manager will partner with stakeholders across Academic Delivery, Schools, Product, MLOps, and other teams to ensure solutions are not only accurate but embedded into the systems faculty and students use daily. This role is responsible for shaping the vision of AI-driven decision support, leading technical development, and ensuring continuous learning through faculty feedback loops.

• Leads and oversees the documentation of data and analytics needs in projects and programs of high complexity with a student and equity-centered lens, collaborating with peers, cross-functional partners, and leaders. Leads the review and triage of user stories, evaluates their business relevance and priority, and translates them into technical requirements that inform the team’s backlog. Defines requirement analysis best practices and drives their adoption across IAR.
• Sets and manages expectations in cross-functional projects and programs of high complexity, ensuring realistic goal-setting and effective communication about scope, timelines, outcomes, and dependencies.
• Establishes trust and builds strong relationships with cross-functional partners and senior stakeholders.
• Drives tasks, activities, and large-scale, cross-functional projects and programs with high autonomy, confidence, and collaboration with peers and partners. Defines and owns project plans and communications, proactively manages dependencies, identifies risks and suitable mitigation strategies, manages resource allocation and capacity, and ensures alignment across the team, leaders, and stakeholders. Breaks down complex goals into concrete tasks and activities and actively supports leaders in cross-functional project and program planning.
  
  Tracks and reports progress, dependencies, and challenges diligently.
• Owns resource planning for their team and projects and participates in resource planning at the department level.
• Participates in the definition of objectives at the…